Sunday, August 30, 2015

Yesterday a good friend of mine, David Lowe, and his brother dropped by in order to play a small but very fun game based on North West Frontier type skirmish. The scenario was I guess fairly standard for the NWF in that one of the local tribes was rebelling against Imperial British authority so a small but Elite force of British and Indian troops were sent out to quash the uprising.

Out Afghan force consisted of only three large warrior war bands, two jazail armed skirmish units, two warrior cavalry units and final an old but effective smooth bore artillery battery. Their mission was to stop the British at all costs or make them pay dearly. Our Anglo-Indian forced consisted of two companies of Highlanders, one company of British infantry, two companies of Indian Guides, one squadron of Indian lancers and one mountain gun section. Imperial mission - suppress the uprising and take back the village. Rules were our clubs unpublished 'Breachloader & Rifle' colonial rules, written by the great Andrew Parr.

The game proved quite hard for the Imperial forces, since the majority of the Afghans set up in the nicely finished hills I had recently completed....they were only accessible from the rear up the spur line (realistic I thought) and Dave (the Imperial player) fell in to a common error of spreading his troops too thinly on the ground. By not concentrating if forces the Afghans were able to concentrate their attacks on isolated units while the remainder of their forces either tied down or slowed the other Imperial troops.

After three hours of play the Imperial forces had lost heavily to the aggressive Afghan tribesmen. But the Afghans had also suffered very heavy loses and have suffered over %50 casualties to British firepower. However in the end the British were unable to take the final objective (the village) and were forced to withdraw into camp for the night.....Victory to the wildly Afghans...but only just - a pyrrhic victory at best.

Afghan smooth bore artillery exchange fire with the Imperial mountain gun. They eventually scored a direct hit and destroyed one of the guns.

A good view of the battlefield. The British objective is the village in the foreground.

There always has to be a market stall somewhere on the table when playing. I love this vignette from Eureka Miniatures.

One of the two Indian Guide companies, painted by Leroy Simpson

Two warrior cavalry units, also painted by Leroy Simpson

Highlanders trying to prior out some troublesome Afghan skirmishers

Warrior cavalry advance to attacked one of the isolated Guide companies.

The Guides are caught unawares by the rapid aggressive advance of the Afghan cavalry and prepare to receive cavalry

The Afghan artillery proved its worth in the game and manage to place effective fire on many of the Imperial troops

The Indian Lancers did not really play a major role in the game and would have been better on the Imperial right flank aiding the Guides.

A photo for Brian Buskell, who has left us for the American colonies for a year.

Afghan warriors offer stiff resistance and proved a hard nut to move from their hill positions

The mounted Afghans charge the Guides

One company is routed and half their number are slain

The Imperial forces get serious and soon reform to make a concentrated attack on the troublesome tribal warriors.

Again that Afghan artillery prove themselves worthy of praise.

Finally with the objective in sight the Highlanders advance forward.

But it is still strongly held by fierce Afghan warriors

One and a half Highland companies prepare to assault the village

Afghans put up a fierce resistance but are either shot down of fall to the British bayonets.

The final charge and then after a titanic struggle and fierce hand to hand combat the Highlanders a forced to withdraw.

Friday, August 21, 2015

At the start of the week I was looking through one of my favourite blogs, called http://maiwandday.blogspot.com.au who has been very busy making some fantasic terrian for his 2nd Afghan War project. The hills he has created out of polystyrene and a few woodchips were what caught my eye and I thought what a great idea. So over the last few days I decided to make a hill of my own using the same technique. It turned out ok I would have to say and now I am in the progress of putting together two smaller hills. They are great idea, easy to construct and perfect for the rugged landscape of Afghanistan and the NWF.

Friday, August 14, 2015

Images from last nights game of Dead Man's Hand with a few of the lads from the Club. Jeff Smith provided all the figures and half the terrain. We had five gangs playing, which made for some great action in and around the buildings of the town. Within the two sides three played the 'Good' and the other two were the 'Bad'. The bad guys mission was to bust out of the bar and escape from two nominated exist points.

This proved a little hard at the start as the bad guys were running out all over the place for the first two turns until they realise they might just have to join forces and attempt to both leave from the same area. Doing so by the third turn they started using the rear of the building to try and escape.

Not a bad plan however with casualties mounting the renegade Indians soon surrendered to the lawman. But the desperadoes keep to their guns and all but two were shot down as they tried to escape of the western side of the table. Good guys casualties were six all told against 11 bad guys biting the dust.

I do believe this is a great fun little game and relatively inexpensive, which basically depends on how many buildings you purchase. Even so the gangs are a good price and very easy to paint, plus the 4Ground buildings come pre-painted and that is a bonus. I think I might even add a few more US 6th Cavalry and more Apaches in order to play a few more actions in the future.

Apaches spread out and look for escape routes

The Lawman come out of the Marshals office with all guns blazing

US 7th Cavalry too the rescue

The Bad guys bust out of the bar

The US Cavalry Indian Hunter is quick on the draw and shoots down one of the baddies

Hand to hand is nasty against the Apache...I lost

Lawman and the local butcher try to cut off the bad guys escape

Using the cover of the rear of the town the bad guys make good their escape

But the cavalry are not far behind

I may not have been much good at shooting with the guy in the top hat however when it came to hand to hand with the Apache I won? Figure that

With their escape cut off the only thing left to do was to go down in a blaze of glory